Playing the Queen's Gambit by Lars Schandorff

Second Edition now available.

The power of the Queen's Gambit is beyond question, even though it allows some serious defences - the Slav and Semi-Slav are favoured by the elite, Kasparov was playing the Queen's Gambit Accepted until he retired, and the Queen's Gambit Declined has been trusted for a century.

The principled way for White to build a repertoire after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 is to play the critical main lines. Take as much space as possible – no compromises. That is Lars Standoff’s attitude and so his choice is clear:

• 5.Bg5 against the Semi-Slav
• 6.Ne5 versus the 5...Bf5 main line Slav
• 3.e4 against the Queen's Gambit Accepted
• The Exchange Variation versus the Queen's Gambit Declined
• 5.c5 against the 4...a6-Slav

The Tarrasch, Chigorin, Albin and all minor lines are also met with the same vigour - this is a complete White repertoire after 1.d4 d5 2.c4.

Lars Schandorff is a grandmaster from Denmark who is renowned on the international circuit for the depth of his opening preparation.

ISBN: 978-1-906552-18-3 - 248 pages - Published 15 January 2009

Reviews

"Schandorff's book can be used as a reference work, for example, by teachers, writers, and annotators needing authoritative guidance....To return to Playing the Queen's Gambit, I'll give it a very high grade and congratulate the author. You should bear in mind, however, that it's on a professional level in terms of detail and analysis. This simply means that you need to be a fairly advanced player, and quite motivated, to truly benefit from it. But even lower players who play 1 d4 (and have a sufficient chess book budget) will want it on their shelves as a high-quality reference."
John Watson (full review)